Category: Around the House

If you’re still reading, let me explain. Obviously, not every mom of younger kids out there has a gym membership or enjoys running on a daily basis. But if you’re a mom, I bet you do a whole lot of lifting, pulling, pushing, and even the occasional dragging if your kid throws a temper tantrum at the grocery store, zoo, park, or whatever. We sweat… we pant… and we exercise!

Unlike at a gym where you can take your time, focus, and watch your form on any of the hundreds of mirrors, motherly exercise most often doesn’t allow for the best form when you have a child on your hip and notice big brother trying to feed Legos to the dog. You twist and lift while off-balance and over time, this causes painful muscles and the ever painful knot that develops behind your shoulders.

A few visits to a chiropractor or if you’re lucky, a massage therapist is a pretty common fix to get rid of these aches and pains. There’s a reason why so many moms absolutely LOVE receiving gift certificates to a spa or a massage session, especially around Christmas time. It would be amazing to get a massage on a weekly basis but unless you’re rich or married to a massage therapist, this is pretty much out of the question. Another option is a good heating pad for back pain. I’m not talking about the $15 Kmart heating pad your grandma uses, but rather a high quality infrared heating pad which is the only kind that will heat deep into your muscle tissue. Unfortunately, these seem to start at about $150.

What if I told you that there was a way you could spend a few minutes a day to give your shoulders or back a self massage and all it would cost you is about a dollar?

Enter the world of trigger point self massage. A friend of mine introduced me to this the last time I had a huge knot right behind my shoulder blades for almost a week. She recommended using a tennis ball to literally “roll out” the knot. Alternatively, one of those golf ball sized rubber bouncy balls you can get in those gumball machines at some stores works even better. You basically put your back against a wall with the ball between your skin and the wall. Move around until the ball is making contact with the painful, knotty area. Apply some pressure and move your body so the ball is almost flattening the knot on your back. It’s slightly painful but one of those “Oh So Good” type of pains. You can also lay on your back on the floor using the same process.

It’s a bit awkward at first but you’ll quickly get the hang of it. Now, whenever I get a knot, I simply get out the rubber ball, and spend a couple minutes 2-3 times a day working on the knot. It really is amazing how effective it is.

Another option other than a ball that works a similar way is what’s called a Thera Cane. It’s essentially a curved plastic can with various stubs and balls on it which you can use to apply pressure to knots or trigger points. It’s good for those hard to reach areas and you can do while sitting at your desk. I prefer the ball method but others swear by their Thera Cane.

It’s pouring fifty-five gallon drums outside right now. I love the sound of the rain. It produces a very calming effect for me (we recently discussed on Reddit), and always has. At least it let me finish work this morning… But the exchange is the screaming new growth from this rain. My hubby has three sections of corn left to harvest this week, and on section three (the northern most section) the harvesting will be difficult possibly due to the rain, and may require the trailer behind the quad, and a leaf rake. When it rains too much, the portion closest to the crick floods just a bit, and causes me to have to skip it, then next week the length is such that it’s got to be raked out clean. A large area, and always a back ache!

A no-stress job huh? And that is one of the most defining aspects of this simple work. He’s had this job for a long time and I know that there are a lot of folks I’ve talked to about this that would love to put us out of work too! Be your own boss, make your own hours too. Every fall is salaried, but he’s in the “on-call” mode for those months. Tough but I gotta do it! We’re also in the process of “updating” our sprinkler system. While we normally wait till winter, we’re having to blow out the system now. Big Bertha (our 60 gallon Craftsman compressor) decided it’s had enough after 10 year. We have a backup Central Pneumatic compressor but it just won’t cut it. Off to Sears in the morning.

As much as I prefer the colder months of the year, this time of year is tough to beat indeed. A big plus is the fact that the electric bill is less than the nearly $200.00 a month in the months of moon! Just got the juice bill yesterday, it’s about $62.00 bucks. A mega-difference from January 15th.

My sister Shelly and her husband Chris just had their first baby. Such an exciting time! Even before baby Sarah was born, Shelly asked if I could come over and help with her first baby bath. Since I LOVE babies, of course I said yes. So of course what happens? Literally the next day home from the hospital, their water heater started leaking! As if being new parents isn’t hard enough, they now had zero hot water.

Fortunately, Chris is a pretty handy guy. Even though the water heater is leaking pretty bad, he knew how to shut off the water right away to keep damage to a minimum. As for the water heater, it’s in the process of being replaced. Most water heaters typically don’t last more than 10-15 years. Turns out that theirs was almost 20 years old! The plumber told Chris that the tank itself was so corroded on the inside, he was shocked it didn’t fail sooner. Oh well, now they can get a newer (and bigger) water heater for their growing family.

I had Shelly bring Sarah over and we would get to do her first bath at our house (with warm water!). Like other parents, bathing our kids when they were newborns is something we assumed comes naturally to everyone but that’s not so. I came across an article a few weeks ago with tips for safe baby bathing. I was a bit embarrassed that even after going through the stage with my kids, some of the info was new to me. Here are some of the best tips for new moms:

DO NOT leave your baby unattended. Hopefully this needs no explanation but a baby can drown in only an inch of water in a short period of time. Make sure you have everything you need for the bath ahead of time. Don’t leave your little one unsupervised for even a few seconds.

Make sure the water is not too hot. Babies have much thinner and sensitive skin so the bath water should be comfortably warm (check the temperature with your wrist or inside of your elbow). According to Water Heater Hub, 130 degrees is the optimal temperature to set your water heater at. To be even more safe, you can turn it to 120 but don’t leave it that low constantly as it might not be hot enough to kill bacteria that may be in the water heater tank.

Keep the bathroom warm. A newborn can get cold very quickly so make sure the door is closed to keep any drafts away. Turn on the overhead heat lamp if you have one.

With newborns, will the tub with only about 3 inches of water. Slightly more for older babies.

Make sure you use a gentle body wash or shampoo made especially for babies.

Teach your baby not to touch the faucet handles or stand up in the bath (if they can). This is how burns or falls occur.

All in all, most are common sense although I admit I probably didn’t pay enough attention to the thermostat setting on our water heater.

Family camping is a lot of fun, but it can also be stressful too. One way to keep things under control is to set up a backyard camping night that you and the kids can enjoy. In order to make the most of the time, it’s important to consider factors like the setup of the camp, the food that everyone will enjoy, and even putting together some games and activities that the whole family can participate in.

Setting Up the Campsite

To make the event as much fun as possible, choose a portion of the backyard that will serve as the campsite. Use the same basic approach that you would use for setting up at a campground. In other words, you would choose to place the tent under a shaded area so it would have a little extra protection from the rain. That shade would also help to keep the temperature inside the tent more pleasant during the heat of the day.

You can even set up a fire pit that will be used for cooking. If you don’t want to dig a hole or ruin the grass, you can always have the kids collect some rocks to make a foundation for a Hibachi grill or some similar device. The kids will enjoy helping to get ready to roast wieners or cook other foods on an open fire. We generally have our first “camp-out” after a little spring cleaning in the garage. This year, my husband (the researcher that he is), poured over countless pressure washer reviews on Consumer Reports and other sites and bought himself a new Generac. We most likely had the cleanest back patio in the state after his day of experimenting with it.

Since you probably don’t have a creek or lake to use for swimming, there is always the option of setting up a wading pool as part of the campsite. Place some comfortable lounges or chairs on the site as well. That will allow the kids to splash away to their heart’s content, then dry out in the sun.

Packing the Food

The backyard camping expedition should not make it necessary to keep running in and out of the house. This means packing food and drink for the evening. Prepare an ice chest and make sure it has plenty of ice to keep the sodas and bottles of water cold. For the food, make trail mix, take along some popcorn, and simple things that you can use to make sandwiches. Don’t forget the hot dogs and the buns for the main meal. Round out the list with some potato chips and maybe something sweet.

Games

Part of camping is getting away from it all. Since you and your kids are so used to electronic devices, decide to do without them for the evening. That means no cell phones and no electronic games. To keep everyone occupied, haul out some board games and keep a few decks of cards on hand. If anyone in the home happens to be musical, a guitar or similar instrument should also be part of the backyard camping scene. Even if no one in the family is that great of a singer, you can have a lot of fun learning some traditional songs and spending time together. We’re particularly fond of bocce ball. The rules are pretty simple and it’s a ton of fun.

Sitting Around the Campfire

While we already have a nice little fire pit, it’s not necessary. You can create a campfire by using two or three flashlights that you stand upright in the stones collected earlier. For more of a fire effect, gather some branches and place them around the flashlights. You won’t have to worry about anyone getting burned or having to have a good fire extinguisher around.

Lights Out

At bedtime, everyone gets to make one run into the house for bathroom time and brushing their teeth. After that, it’s back to the tent site and into the sleeping bags. Expect the kids to spend a little time talking and laughing before they finally settle down to sleep. Make sure to turn out the flashlights before you call it a night.

When my twin girls were four, my husband and I purchased our first house. We moved in two weeks after our five year anniversary and it was such a wonderful change from the apartment. This new place had more bedrooms, allowing our daughters to each have their own space in time, and the ability for us to begin trying for another baby in the near future. The twins certainly are not ready to sleep alone yet and have never spent the night apart since conception. The one bedroom they wanted to share was a decent size, but really seemed suited to one bed not two. The girls were in their cozy Merino sleep sacks which we splurged on from the Sleep Sack Store and still in toddler beds for the first month after we settled in, and the two toddler beds side by side were okay, with just a little bit of space for a night table in between, but it did not allow for much morning play space or wind down room at night. I recall when I was young that I had a twin bed against the wall, looking across at the corner with my very own bookshelf and a nice comfy bean bag set in the nook and I really wanted that for Allie and Kristy.

Jim, my husband, stepped in and came up with the solution before I did, but I admit I was nervous about it. He suggested that we purchase bunk beds that would allow the space to be opened up. He works all day and gets to see the sleepy side of the girls at night when I’ve been home all day listening to their bickering as little girls will do, they complain about sharing, they complain about who can have which dress on in the morning and I don’t even understand that one, I dress them identical! Either way, I knew there would be a battle for top bunk and I was a little nervous about whether or not one of them would fall out from the top bunk having never been up that high before.

We’re huge fans of Ikea as half of our furnishings are from there but when we went to the store, nothing really stood out as far as bunk beds. Looking into our options online, we did manage to find one that was perfect, and the height was adjustable with growth. They did fight over who was going to get the top bunk at first, but it was actually easily solved when Kristy won for top bunk and then found out that she was too scared to even sleep up there. She opted for the bottom from then on out. I got to create a nice little reading corner for the girls and a cute hammock over the top that houses their favorite stuffed animals.

I’ve always heard about how great it is to start your own compost pile. My husband and I decided that it would actually be a great learning experience for the whole family. The kids really loved getting involved in this one. Again, one of the many benefits of homeschooling.

What is Compost?

Compost is an organic matter, usually garden debris, that has been allowed or encouraged to decay. To be a successful organic gardener, you will want to take advantage of the benefit of using a compost. It is useful in improving fertility and texture of planting beds and is an important constituent of greenhouse and potting soils. Its nutritive qualities depend on the fertilizers and other nutrient-containing materials added to the compost pile as it decomposes.

The value to the average gardener of a composted supply of humus is hard to beat, and most amateur gardeners today compost in some form. Compost to which nutritive elements have been added is used as rotted manure is used; compost that isn’t enriched is used as humus only. The best-quality garden loam for all purposes includes one-third humus. It makes the soil spongy, airy and light, and retentive of moisture. Sandy soils lacking humus allow rainfall to wash the nutritive ingredients down and out, and a clay soil without humus will bake so hard it is almost impervious to water and to the rootlets trying to work their way toward food and moisture.

Anything organic left to the elements will compost (decompose). Leaves, grass clippings, plant tops, straw, old hay, and sod are some of the materials you can use to make compost. Many gardeners have made it a practice to add humus in the form of raw organic materials – weeds, for instance – to the soil without composting them, by digging them into borders and around plantings. One of the best ways of doing this is with a rototiller. For most people, renting one is the best option.

The practice does add humus to the soil, raw organic matter causes soil bacteria to speed up their activities. This robs the soil of nitrogen and often causes the leaves of the growing plants around to yellow. It is better for the plants to remove weeds to the compost heap and return them to the soil when they have become compost. Leaf mold and peat moss are two forms of organic matter that can be added to the soil without composting, as they are already composted. If you plan on doing some landscape improvements to your yard, don’t just think about the great new retaining wall ideas you just saw in Better Homes and Gardens, focus on the basics first. Every home owner should have a good size compost pile in their backyard.

How to Build Your First Compost Pile

There are several methods to build a compost pile. A simple leaf pile, or a series of them located at convenient points around the garden may be encased in 15 ft. or so of snow fencing wired into a circle. In time, about two years or more depending on your weather, the leaves will turn into compost without any effort on your part. Miscellaneous leaves composted provide an excellent source of supplemental potting humus, but little in the way of nutrients. Beech and oak leaves are acid, and after composting are excellent additional humus to place around acid-loving broad-leaved evergreens.